Ruth Ravina saw more horror and atrocities as a little girl than even experienced soldiers see in war today.

A German soldier was killed in her Polish ghetto so the Nazis rounded up 200 teenage boys and made their families witness as they were summarily shot and killed.

Ravina says she can still hear the screams of the mothers even though her father grabbed her close to him to shield her and tried to muffle the horrible sounds.

Shortly after at the tender age of 5, she was separated from her mother in central Poland so her life would be spared by the Nazis. Teenage girls from her ghetto brought her to a barn owned by Christian farmers who knew her family. The property owners risked almost certain death if the Nazis discovered her there.

This is just one of many harrowing escapes she will recount this coming Sunday at B’Nai Jacob in Jersey City as the guest speaker for their annual Holocaust Memorial Day, which is co-sponsored by Temple Beth-El in Jersey City and United Synagogue in Hoboken.

Now in its 48th year, this occasion commemorates the destruction of the European Jewish community by the Nazis during World War II. The day is also known by its Hebrew name, Yom Ha’Shoah, the Day (Commemorating) the Calamity. Over 6 million Jews were systematically starved, tortured and murdered during this dark period of Jewish history.

Many others, including Poles, homosexuals and people with disabilities, were also put to death by the Nazis.

“This is not an event just for the Jewish community because we’re all each other’s brothers and sisters and the keepers of our community,” said Cantor Marsha Dubrow, the spiritual leader of B’Nai Jacob. Dubrow is an award-winning musician, composer and liturgist who has brought new life to her Conservative synagogue.

Cantor Marsha Dubrow and members of Congregation B'nai Jacob in Jersey City demonstrate on Wednesday, March 27, 2013, a candle lighting ceremony that will be part of the 48th annual community-wide observance of Yom Ha'Shoah on April 7 in remembrance of the Holocaust. Six candles represent the six million Jews who died and one candle represents the righteous Gentiles who sheltered and worked to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust. Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey Journal

She is especially fond of Ravina, whose deceased husband Oscar, also a Holocaust survivor, was a violinist for the New York Philharmonic. Ravina, who lives in Upper Montclair, turns 76 on Sunday and gives thanks to God for being born petite. She says she weighs 135 pounds today.

She was eventually reunited with her mother when she literally snuck into Pionky, a women’s labor camp that was in what she called “lake country.”

“Most people snuck out of camps to escape and here I was sneaking in,” said Ravina, who has an incredible memory for detail. These prisoners were working outside digging into the Vistula River. During her whole time there, her mother hid her in her knapsack and she lived undetected. Eventually, she and her mother wound up in Czestochowa.

“You’ve heard of that shrine,” she asked recounting the story of the Black Madonna. In her third work camp, they made bullets and worked for the first time indoors. When she was almost 8 years old, after three years in three different work camps, the Russians liberated the some 400 survivors.

At Sunday’s service, Dubrow and Rabbi Debra Hachen from Beth-El and Rabbi Robert Scheinberg, from United, will offer prayers and readings. Scheinberg will lead his synagogue’s choir in a number of Jewish sacred pieces in different languages. Dubrow will sing two Yiddish songs composed in the Vilna ghetto, one by Shmerke Kascerginski entitled “Friling” (Spring) and one by Avraham Sutzkever, “Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern” (Under Your White Stars).

There will be a commemorative candle lighting led by Hachen of six candles to represent the 6 million plus human beings murdered by the Nazis. A seventh candle will be lit to acknowledge “the righteous gentiles,” who helped the Jews.

The program will conclude with the traditional recitation of the Kaddish, the Jewish memorial prayer, punctuated with a recitation of the numerous concentration camps, followed by the singing of “Hatikvah,” the Israeli national anthem.

Ravina is the mother of two accomplished sons and has seven grandchildren. She was thrilled that she just returned from Boston for the bar mitzvah of her youngest grandson. “I never thought I would live,” she said. And by telling her story, she will help us remember those who did not.

Santora is the pastor of The Church of Our Lady of Grace & St. Joseph, 400 Willow Ave., Hoboken, 07030, fax (201) 659-5833, e-mail: padrealex@yahoo.com.

If you go

WHAT: Holocaust Memorial Day Observance

WHEN: Sunday, at 3 p.m.

WHERE: Congregation B’Nai Jacob, 176 West Side Ave., Jersey City

DETAILS: A light reception will follow. Free and open to all. For information, call (201) 435-5725 or e-mail info@bnaijacobjc.org.